The list
Updated
On this page13
The name and address of the dispenser
Which identifies who filled it. Not the manufacturer and not the prescriber, but the pharmacy.
The serial number and date of the prescription or of its filling
Two data points in one item, and the alternative is notable: the date of the prescription or the date of its filling.
The name of the prescriber
Which is separate from the dispenser and is the third distinct party named on the label.
If stated in the prescription, the name of the patient
The one conditional item. The patient name is required on the label only where the prescription stated it.
Which is worth noticing
Four of the five are unconditional and the fifth depends on what the prescriber wrote. A list that is uniform except in one place was drafted deliberately.
And the directions for use and cautionary statements
If any, contained in such prescription. So this item also tracks the prescription rather than being independently specified.
So two of the five are contents of the prescription
The patient name where stated, and the directions and cautionary statements if any. The label reproduces what the prescription contained.
Which makes the label a transcription as much as a declaration
And explains why it cannot be reconstructed from the tablets. The content came from a document, not from the product.
All five on a small cylindrical label
Three parties, two dates or numbers, a patient name and the directions. On a container that in our range would be 150 mL at the median.
Which is why dispensed bottles look the way they do
A dense label wrapped most of the way round, and very little room for anything else.
And why a travel container cannot carry it
Our 15 pocket-size containers are 1.33 to 1.59 inches tall at 14.8 or 29.6 mL. The label area is a fraction of what the dispensed bottle had.
So the physical problem and the legal one point the same way
There is not room, and there is not the information. Neither is something a container choice fixes.